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Page 11
Campus Review
March 26, 2012
Last-second Basket
Gives Wingate Victory
by Lee Wright, Sports Information
The Clayton State Laker women’s basket-
ball team made a valiant rally against
Wingate in the NCAA Division II
Southeast Regional. However, the
Bulldogs converted a big last-second bas-
ket for a 64-63 victory. The defeat ended
Clayton State’s season 29-4 overall.
Clayton State had battled back from as
many as nine points down late in the sec-
ond half, and took a 63-62 lead on a 3-
point basket by Drameka Griggs with 10
seconds remaining. But Wingate’s Nikki
Burton drove the ball the length of the
court and scored on a running jumper on
the right baseline with four seconds
remaining.
A last-second shot by the Lakers’ Keona
Dixon was off as time expired.
“I was real proud of the way we fought
today, and we knew it would be a grind-
out game,” says Clayton State head coach
Dennis Cox. “But we didn’t defend well
today. When we defend, we are going to
win a lot of games. But we are not proud
of the way we defended today.
“But I was proud of the way we hung in
there and made it exciting. A lot of credit
to Wingate – they have been playing with
a lot of momentum.”
Like the first-round game against
Tusculum (a 51-26 Laker win), Clayton
State struggled shooting from the field in
the first half. The Lakers shot only 29 per-
cent in trailing by six points at halftime.
Wingate used a 9-0 run to wipe out a 3-
point Clayton State lead as Janitsha
Williams hit a 3-point basket to give the
Bulldogs a 22-16 lead with 4:31 remain-
ing.
Another 3-point basket by Kurie
Washington stretched the Wingate lead to
six points. Washington then made a lay-up
32 seconds remaining to give the
Bulldogs a 31-25 lead at halftime.
Wingate kept its lead between five and
eight points for much of the second half.
Williams drained a 3-point basket to give
the Bulldogs a 45-37 lead at 12:47 mark,
and a lay-up by Burton gave Wingate a
49-41 lead with 8:22 remaining. A 3-point
play by Simone Rutledge gave Wingate
its largest lead 58-49 with 4:21 remaining.
That’s when Clayton State rallied.
Brittany Hall hit a 3-point basket and
Dixon sank a short jumper off a Bulldog
turnover. Back-to-back steals and transi-
tion lay-ups by Griggs and Dixon tied the
game 60-60 with 55 seconds remaining.
After Burton hit two free throws, Griggs
drained the big 3-point basket to give the
Lakers the one-point lead.
But Burton answered with the big running
baseline jumper to give Wingate the tri-
umph.
Griggs paced Clayton State with 18
points. Woodard and Hall – the Lakers’
two seniors – scored 14 points and 11
points, respectively. Both players con-
cluded their storied Clayton State careers
with a 114-19 record and the 2011 NCAA
Division II National Championship.
Dixon added 13 points for the Lakers.
“It’s the end of an era at Clayton State,”
Cox says. “What these two have done in
their four-year careers have been unbe-
lievable. It will not be the same without
them. We’ll go on, but it won’t be the
same without them.”
Burton scored 16 points to pace Wingate,
followed by Rutledge with 15 points and
Washington with 13 points.
Trivia Time
PR Question
Stumps All But
Stillion
by John Shiffert, University Relations
Maybe the moral of the story is, you
have to read carefully when dealing
with PR people.
Note once again, the phrasing of the
last Trivia Time question…
“The first sitting president defeated
for re-election thanks in a large part
to a concerted PR campaign by his
opponent, consisting of clever elec-
tioneering slogans, jingles, banners
and the like? Send your answers to
Clayton State’s PR person.”
It’s a PR question, not asking for the
first sitting president to be defeated
for re-election, but the first sitting
president to get beat thanks to a PR
campaign. THAT answer would be,
not John Adams, but the loser in the
famous “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too”
campaign. Thus, the correct answer
for the second straight issue was…
Martin Van Buren. (This particular
PR person happened to write a histo-
ry paper on the 1840 presidential
campaign while in college.)
A lot of people answered John
Adams, but only B.D. Stillion knew
about Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too,
thus winning a rare double Trivia
Points victory.
While it’s tempting to ask who intro-
duced the political patronage system
to the White House (the answer to
that one would also be Van Buren),
we’ll pass and move on from Old
Kinderhook, though sticking with
the chief executives. There were no
less than three present or future chief
executives in Dallas, Texas, on Nov.
22, 1963. They were? Send your
answers to JohnShiffert@clayton.edu.